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Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Carney looks chummy with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in newly resurfaced pics

Canada’s incoming prime minister, Mark Carney, has some photos with Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that he’d rather you not see.

Opponents are circulating the 2013 photos, which show Carney smiling alongside Maxwell — who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021. The shots were taken at a music festival in the UK.

Carney’s camp says that the images are nothing more than a political ploy ahead of the Canadian federal election later this year.

In the photos, the 59-year-old was joined by his wife and another man, all of whom appeared friendly with Maxwell as they laughed and gestured at the stage.

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The images first recirculated online in January after Carney —a former governor of the central banks for both Canada and the UK — announced his bid to replace outgoing Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

They got a fresh airing after he was picked to lead the Liberal Party on Sunday and become the next prime minister.

But Carney’s camp insists there’s nothing to see in the photos, claiming he and Maxwell barely know each other.

“This is another example of how [Conservative leader] Pierre Poilievre and [his PR head] Jenni Byrne have always played politics and it shows again how terrified they are to fight Mark Carney,” a source told the Toronto Sun in January.

Carney’s connection to Maxwell was extremely removed, the source said, explaining she went to high school with his sister-in-law.

“They have bumped into each other in public settings,” the source said. “They are not friends.”

The photos were taken after Epstein spent 13 months in jail in 2008 for procuring a child for prostitution.

The photos were just the latest of Maxwell and Epstein with world leaders and high profile players to emerge.

President Trump has appeared chummy with Epstein in numerous photos and videos — though he says he later banned the pedophile financier form his club. Former president Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and the likes of Bill Gates are known to have had friendships and associations with the predator.

All have denied knowing about Epstein’s horrific sex trafficking.

Maxwell grew up among British high society, but is now serving 20 years in US federal prison.

Carney has not publicly commented on the photos.

He overwhelmingly won his party’s election over the weekend, taking home 86% of the vote to lead the Liberal Party — and Canada.

A former banker who had never held elected office, Carney took a shot at President Trump’s tariffs and rhetoric about turning Canada into the 51st state — insisting his country would never give in.

“America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” he said during his acceptance speech.

“We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves,” he said. “The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country… Think about it. If they succeed, they will destroy our way of life.”

Carney’s victory comes as Trump’s aggressions have bolstered Liberal party support that had badly sagged in recent months — to the point that Trudeau announced he would step down.

It remains unclear when he will officially assume his office or how long he will remain. Canada’s general elections are currently slated for October, but prime ministers have the power to dissolve parliament and hold new elections.

With the momentum currently behind the Liberal party, it has been speculated Carney will do just that in an attempt to bolster his party’s power.

https://nypost.com/2025/03/11/world-news/canada-prime-minister-elect-mark-carney-looks-chummy-with-epstein-accomplice-ghislaine-maxwell/

Teachers’ unions bent the Education Dept. to their will

Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, is “really angry” that President Trump wants to close the US Education Department.

And no wonder: The AFT and its sister union, the National Education Association, have reaped the benefits of the agency’s steady growth since 1980 — so calls to close it directly threaten both unions’ bottom line.

Every increase in Washington’s education spending helps union causes.

For so many problems with the American education system, unions will claim that the trouble is a teacher shortage, then lobby lawmakers for more taxpayer cash as a solution.

Historically, that’s been the pattern ever since the Education Department was established in 1980: Per-student spending consistently increases, school officials hire more staff — and the problems persist.

During lean economic times that disrupt the job market, such as the 2009 financial downturn or the COVID-19 pandemic, unions can decry any potential cuts to education as threats to student success.

Yet no matter how many staffers are hired, achievement gaps remain.

Test scores in math and reading today are at or near historic lows.

Still, unions’ messaging has continually convinced lawmakers to spend more.

When schools closed at the beginning of the pandemic, for example, the unions declared teacher shortages, and federal lawmakers responded with nearly $190 billion in additional school spending.

Many administrators used the cash for pay increases and signing bonuses for teachers who swapped schools.

Now districts have used up that short-term COVID money, and unions are once again declaring shortages — even though public-school student enrollment is down since 2019, and achievement is stagnant.

Many of the new hires aren’t even teachers: The share of school administrators has skyrocketed over the last half-century, with non-instructional staff increasing by some 700%, compared to a 243% increase in classroom instructors.

The Education Department is responsible for implementing federal education law through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and for distributing money appropriated by Congress under that law to schools.

Each section of the law creates a need for more spending and hiring, even when its programs are not successful.

For example, research finds that high-quality educators — teachers who have a record of improving student achievement — can have a significant impact on student success (obviously).

Research does not conclusively explain, however, what creates an effective teacher.

Never mind that: The AFT operates a “Professional Learning Program,” fed in large part by federal dollars. Professional teacher development falls under Title II of ESSA, and the unions’ lobbying of Congress for more spending has paid off — to the tune of $2 billion in 2020 alone.

Meanwhile, research finds that Title II programs are not effective at improving student achievement.

Closing the Education Department will help to end federal grant awards for union-favored projects such as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” teacher training.

Last month, the Trump administration cut $600 million worth of such grants.

In fact, the AFT claims that DEI gives it a reason to go outside of schools to push its political preferences.

The union crows that it “work[s] with public pension funds, state treasurers, policymakers and advocacy organizations” to “integrate racial justice.”

DEI isn’t just a moral crusade for unions; it’s a rallying cry for more taxpayer spending inside and outside education, even as hundreds of surveys find DEI to be ineffective at changing individual attitudes and behavior.

The AFT has also lobbied Congress to increase spending on Title I, federal taxpayer money meant for students in low-income areas, despite evidence that its programs — costing more than $17 billion in the 2021-22 school year alone — do not help kids learn.

President Jimmy Carter created the Education Department as part of an endorsement deal with teachers’ unions more than 40 years ago — and the unions saw dollar signs.

Closing the department will help end the shortage-hire-repeat cycle, thereby cutting off avenues that unions use to lobby for exponential growth in education spending — and the accompanying increases in union budgets.

Over the last four decades, we’ve learned that more money for teachers’ unions doesn’t translate into better student test scores.

It’s time to focus our education efforts on what will truly help America’s kids — not on what will line union leaders’ pockets.

Jonathan Butcher is the Will Skillman Senior Research Fellow in education policy at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.

https://nypost.com/2025/03/11/opinion/how-teachers-unions-bent-the-education-dept-to-their-will/

Changes in US Primary Care Access and Capabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Matthew Mackwood, MD, MPH^1,2; Elliott Fisher, MD^1,2,3; Rachel O. Schmidt, MS²; et al

Key Points

Question How did the capabilities and accessibility of US primary care practices change in recent years?

Findings In this cohort study across 710 primary care practices that completed surveys in 2017 to 2018 and 2022 to 2023, access to primary care was reported to decline, yet modest improvements in capabilities were reported. Practices participating in accountable care organizations and those with more integrated ownership reported higher scores on average, though scores varied substantially within groups.

Meaning Further attention to primary care’s accessibility and capabilities is necessary to inform ongoing efforts to enhance and expand high-quality primary care in the US.

Abstract

Importance Many of the capabilities needed to deliver accessible, high-quality primary care have been defined, but little is known about how their implementation has changed in US practices over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic or about the factors associated with greater capabilities.

Objective To describe US primary care practices’ accessibility and capabilities and examine recent changes.

Design, Setting, and Participants This was a retrospective cohort study across 2 surveys, in 2017 to 2018 and 2022 to 2023, among a national sample of primary care practice leaders in the US. Data were analyzed from January 2023 to September 2024.

Exposures Degree of integrated practice ownership and accountable care organization (ACO) participation.

Main Outcomes and Measures Differences by practice ownership and ACO participation, and changes over time in access to care and care delivery capabilities. These were measured by composite scores of responses standardized to a scale of 0 to 100.

Results This analysis included 710 practices, of which 234 were independently owned, 105 were physician group owned, and 321 were hospital/health system owned in 2017 to 2018, and 68 practices reported no ACO participation, 107 joined between surveys, and 486 otherwise participated in ACOs. Access to care (measured as extended weekday or weekend hours) was reported to decline from the first survey in 2017 to 2018 to the second in 2022 to 2023. Hospital/health system practices and ACO participants had higher rates of extended weekday hours than their comparators in 2022 to 2023. Average capability scores increased from 51 to 54 (increase of 4 points [95% CI, 1-6 points]). There was wide variation in scores within all ownership and ACO participant or nonparticipant groups. Capability scores were higher on average for more integrated practices (for physician groups compared to independent practices, 12 points [95% CI, 5-19 points] in 2017-2018 and 12 points [95% CI, 7-16 points] in 2022-2023) and for ACO participants compared to nonparticipants (13-point difference [6 to 20] in 2017-2018 and 12-point difference [6 to 18] in 2022-2023).

Conclusions and Relevance In this cohort study, over the time period including the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care practices reported a decline in access to care, while average practice capabilities improved. Integrated practice ownership and ACO participation were both associated with better access and capability scores, suggesting that value-based payment and integrated care delivery support the development of higher-quality primary care. Variations across practices point to large opportunities for improvement overall and underscore the importance of incentives and structures as levers to improve primary care delivery.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2829823

Risks of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome after COVID-19 vaccination, SARS-Cov-2 Infection

Alan C. Kwan,
Joseph E. Ebinger,
Janet Wei,
Catherine N. Le,
Jillian R. Oft,
Rachel Zabner,
Debbie Teodorescu,
Patrick G. Botting,
Jesse Navarrette,
David Ouyang,
Matthew Driver,
Brian Claggett,
Brittany N. Weber,
Peng-Sheng Chen &
Susan Cheng

Abstract
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) was previously described after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection; however, limited data are available on the relation of POTS with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Here we show, in a cohort of 284,592 COVID-19-vaccinated individuals, using a sequence–symmetry analysis, that the odds of POTS are higher 90 days after vaccine exposure than 90 days before exposure; we also show that the odds for POTS are higher than referent conventional primary care diagnoses but lower than the odds of new POTS diagnosis after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our results identify a possible association between COVID-19 vaccination and incidence of POTS. Notwithstanding the probable low incidence of POTS after COVID-19 vaccination, particularly when compared to SARS-Cov-2 post-infection odds, our results suggest that further studies are needed to investigate the incidence and etiology of POTS occurring after COVID-19 vaccination.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44161-022-00177-8